That Knowledge is not True Wisdom cannot be too strongly urged upon
youth. “There is a heaping up of knowledge just as amenable to this
censure as the ignorance of the unlearned, not indeed so censured by
man, but equally worthy of it in a true judgment. The intellectual fool,
full of knowledge but without wisdom, whose way is right in his own
eyes, is no less a fool, nay, more so, than the ignorant fool, and as
far from true wisdom. For knowledge is a very different thing from
wisdom; knowledge is but the collecting together of a mass of material
at best, whilst wisdom is the right perception and right use leading to
further riches. The mere heaper-up of knowledge digs, as it were, ore
out of the earth, working underground in darkness; whereas the wise man
fashions all his knowledge into use and beauty, praising and blessing
God with it, and receiving from Him a fuller measure in consequence.
Wisdom is knowledge applied to life and to the praise of God,—a thing of
the heart, the heart controlling and using all the head gathers;
knowledge by itself is a mere barren store of the head, quite separable
from goodness and love,—a thing capable of being possessed by devils.
For this we must mark, the humblest good heart which loves God alone can
attain to the knowledge of God. No mere intellectual power and pride can
do that. And hence we may see why the man whose way is right in his own
eyes is a fool.”[81]
Montaigne thus points out an educational error, common in our time as
well as in that of this charming writer, whom a gentleman is ashamed not
to have read:
The care and expense our parents are at have no other aim but to
furnish our heads with knowledge, but not a word of judgment and
virtue. Cry out of one that passes by to our people, “Oh, what a
learned man is that!” and of another, “Oh, what a good man is that!”
they will not fail to turn their eyes and pay their respects to the
former. There should then be a third man to cry out, “Oh, what
blockheads they are!” Men are ready to ask, “Does he understand
Greek or Latin—is he a poet or prose-writer?” But whether he is the
better or more discreet man, though it is the main question, is the
last; for the inquiry should be, who has the best learning, not who
has the most. We only take pains to stuff the memory, and leave the
understanding and conscience quite unfurnished. Of what service is
it to us to have a bellyful of meat, if it does not digest—if it
does not change its form in our bodies—and if it does not nourish
and strengthen us? We suffer ourselves to lean so much upon the arms
of others, that our strength is of no use to us. Would I fortify
myself against the fear of death, I do it at the expense of Seneca;
would I extract consolation for myself or my friend, I borrow it
from Cicero; whereas I might have found it in myself, if I had been
trained up in the exercise of my own reason. I do not fancy the
acquiescence in second-hand hearsay knowledge; for though we may be
learned by the help of another’s knowledge, we can never be wise but
by our own wisdom. Agesilaus being asked what he thought most proper
for boys to learn, replied: What they ought to do when they come to
be men.
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Footnote 81:
Thring’s _Sermons delivered at Uppingham School_.
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